CHARITY

Subjectively, the sentiment or motive of benevolence and philanthropy; the disposition to relieve the distressed. Objectively, alms-giving; acts of benevolence; relief, assistance, or services accorded to the needy without return. Also gifts for the promotion of philanthropic and humanitarian purposes. Jackson v. Phillips, 14 Allen (Mass.) 556; Vidal v. Girard, 2 How. 127, 11 L. Ed. 205; Historical Soc. v. Academy of Science, 94 Mo. 459, 8 S. W. 346. The meaning of the word “charity,” in its legal sense, is different from the signification which it ordinarily bears. In its legal sense, it includes not only gifts for the benefit of the poor, but endowments for the advancement of earning, or institutions for the encouragement of science and art, and, it is said, for any other useful and public purpose. Gerke v. Purcell, 25 Ohio St. 243. Charity, in its widest sense, denotes all the good affections men ought to bear towards each other; in a restricted and common sense, relief of the poor. Morice v. Bishop of Durham, 9 Ves. 399. Charity, as used in the Massachusetts Sunday law, includes whatever proceeds from a .sense of moral duty or a feeling of kindness and humanity, and is intended wholly for the purpose of the relief or comfort of another, and not for one’s own benefit or pleasure. Doyle v. Railroad Co., 118 Mass. 195, 197, 19 Am. Rep. 431. Foreign charity. One created or endowed in a state or country foreign to that of the domicile of the benefactor. Taylor’s Ex’rs v. Trustes of Bryn Maur College. 34 N. J. Eq. 101. Public charity. In this phrase the word “public” is used, not in the sense that it must be executed openly and in public, but in the sense of being so general and indefinite in its objects as to be deemed of common and public benefit. Each individual immediately enefited may be private, and the charity may be distributed in private and by a private hand. It is public and general in its scope and purpose, and becomes definite and private onlv after the individual objects have been, selected. Saltonstall v. Sanders, 11 Allen (Mass.) 450. Pure charity. One which is entirely gratuitous, and which dispenses its benefits without any charge or pecuniary return whatever. See In re Keech’s Estate (Surr.) 7 N. Y. Supp. 331; In re Lenox’s Estate (Surr.) 9 N. Y. Supp.